Expecting her first child, Kate Middleton has said that she would like to have a boy but her husband Prince William wants a girl.

31-year-old Duchess of Cambridge, who was wearing a dark green coat, chatted about her impending motherhood with the Irish Guards at St Patrick's Day parade. Guardsman Lee Wheeler, said: "I was talking to her about the baby of course. I asked her do you know if it's a girl or a boy and she said not yet". "She said, 'I'd like to have a boy and William would like a girl'," Wheeler said.

"That's always the way. I asked her if she had any names and she said no. I said I suppose you have to stick to traditional names," he told the Duchess.

Kate, who is around five-and-a-half months pregnant, chatted about motherhood with members of the Irish Guards after handing out St Patrick's Day shamrocks, the Mirror reported.

During her hour-and-a-half hour visit to the regiment's Aldershot barracks the Duchess made several frank and open comments about her baby due in July.

She said she was prepared for sleepless nights, is very excited about becoming a mum but doesn't have any definite names for her child yet.

After presenting officers, guardsmen and the regiment's dog mascot Domhnall with their shamrocks, where she nearly slipped over getting her foot caught in a drain, she and William met a line-up of soldiers.

Kate also chatted to Sergeant Thomas Laven who has received an Irish Guards long service medal for having good conduct for 15 years.

Thomas, who has a seven-month-old son Theo, said, "I congratulated her on the impending birth and said you've got sleepless nights to come. She said she was prepared for it."